Living History Farms Wedding | Scott & Molly

Scott & Molly wanted a simple day at the Iowa Living History Farms. They started at the Church of the Land Chapel and ended at the Visitors Center for their reception. Their wedding day was full of intention and fun.

They made the day exactly how they wanted it:

• Incorporating their last name into fun elements (Heckman = Heck Yeah!)

• No getting ready photos.

• Waiting to see each other until they were walking down the aisle.

• The ceremony with the sole focus of sharing the gospel.

• Their first kiss as husband and wife photographed from the stage.

• Ice cream for dessert instead of cake.

• Spending the majority of their reception with each other and their guests

I had a blast coming along side and being a witness and getting to document their wedding day.

Important things couples don’t always know to think about *before* their wedding day

Time is the number one underestimated thing on wedding days. There is never enough time. The day will fly by and it’s common for things to take longer than expected - hair, makeup, corralling family members for family photos, traveling from one venue to a next, the receiving line, etc.

Below are common issues I see on wedding days that in hind sight could have easily been avoided if thought out fully before hand. Disclaimer: every wedding has something that doesn’t seem to go as planned. We are all human and things happen. BUT with simple planning and thinking through some of the not so fun moments of the day will help keep issues from popping up and surprising you on your wedding day 🙂

Hair & Makeup

Important questions to consider…

Do you have enough stylists for your wedding party?

Are you starting early enough for what you want?

If each person’s hair takes 30 minutes and makeup also takes 30 minutes and you have 10 people who need both done that is 600 minutes total. So you would need a minimum of a 4 person team to get it done in under 3 hours.

Make sure you think about the order. If you want your mom or maid of honor’s hair and makeup to be done for getting ready photos make sure they are closer to the top of the list. Make sure things are delegated to non core members of your bridal party and getting ready to ensure you aren’t waiting on them to get your day started and so they can relax and enjoy the day along side of you.

If you want a first look with all your bridesmaids fully dressed, all hair and makeup will need to be complete by the scheduled first look time. You might be thinking duh Megan after reading, this but I’ve had to wait 30+ minutes before because this wasn’t thought out before the day of.

Reading Letters/Vows

If you want your videographer to capture you speaking letters or any special words out loud expect it to take at least 10 minutes per letter. You will also need a completely quiet room to do this.

Family Photos

Make sure every person knows where and when they need to be for family photos. It is not uncommon for one person to be running late or for someone to forget to tell one specific family member when to arrive for photos.

One huge way to help this issue, is to delegate a family or non-family member to be in charge of rounding up people for family photos. Having a designated point person will save a lot of time and stress when family photos happen especially if you have a lot of combinations or large families.

Driving Time

Do you have to drive from a getting ready space to the ceremony venue?

Do you have to drive from the ceremony venue to the reception venue?

Do you want to drive from the venue to a photo location?

If you answered yes to any of these questions make sure to map out the times of these. Each of these will add time to your day. If it takes 15 minutes delegate 25 extra minutes. The day of things always seem to take longer due to talking, all the moving parts of your day, looking for parking downtown, and walking time. It’s better to have extra 15 minutes (to breathe, sneak away, go to the bathroom, eat a snack) then to be running around running 30 minutes behind the entire day and feeling stressed.

Party Bus Travel Time

Party Buses always take long to get to venues than expected due to the bus not being able to go as fast and usually the driver taking the scenic route.

If you want your reception to start at 6pm and are going on a party bus from 5-6pm make sure to tell the driver you need to be back by 6pm at the latest.

If had busses be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour late to reception venues. Delegate someone on your bus as the time keeper to make sure you get to your venue on time.

Down Time

Do you have any downtime built into your timeline? If you don’t, you need it to take a breather, hydrate, eat, go to the bathroom or maybe you are an introvert and just need to sneak away for a solid 15 minutes just bride and groom after the ceremony. Scheduling this time is valuable and will pay off.

None of the above things are mind blowing. But they are commonly missed because of all the big things that need to be planned. Planning a wedding is a lot. The biggest thing you can do to prevent forgetting any of these things is by delegating. Delegation saves you time, tears and stress. Trust the people you hire and those closest to you and you won’t regret it. In my experience I’ve found it will help you let go and fully enjoy your wedding day. 🥰

Olivia & Grant Engagement Session

Olivia and I went to high school together. Grant and I played tennis together in college. So you can imagine my excitement when Olivia reached out to me and said her and Grant were engaged and wanted me to be their wedding photographer. 😀 I love when different parts of my life collide and I get the honor to document them! Both Olivia and Grant had such a calm and gentle presence and it truly reflected how perfect of a match they are for each other in the way the talked and treated each other during the session.

How cute is Finnegan? I’m convinced he is one of the goodest boys out there 🐶 🐾

Olivia wanted fall colors in their engagement photos and mother nature really hit that out of the park this last fall in Des Moines 🙂 I’m so excited to photograph them again on their wedding day this summer at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden!

Iowa Taproom Wedding - Carissa & Jeffrey

Carissa and Jeffrey walked down the aisle as husband and wife to a classical version of the Star Wars theme song beaming. They kept their ceremony short but there wasn’t a shortage of tears and smiles during it. Instead of taking additional photos during their cocktail hour they hung out with their guests and ate the delicious appetizers they hand picked out. They didn’t rush from one thing to the next; they enjoyed each moment and I loved being a part of it.

Do what you want on your wedding day, not what you think your mom wants (no offense moms) or what Pinterest tells you is tradition. Do what you want to do on your wedding day. You won’t regret it.

Iowa Country Winter Engagement Session - Taylor & Collin

With Taylor and Collin’s wedding day less than a week away, it’s the perfect time to share more of their wintery engagement session. We started their session with their dog Maverick. I love when couples want to get a few photos with their pets and always recommend doing these photos during the first 15 minutes or last 15 minutes. I suggest having a friend/family member bring your pet(s) or tag along to help corral and watch them after, so you can relax and fully enjoy your engagement session. Bringing a few treats and their favorite toy never hurts as well 🙂Maverick was so excited about the snow and was such a good boy sitting and even smiled right at me!

After spending some exploring in the woods, we went to an open spot in the country that had the most beautiful views of the valley 😍Can you believe it was under 20 degrees in these photos? To say it was cold was an understatement (we took several warm up breaks), but these two were troopers and made the below freezing temps look hot 🔥

I’m so excited to photograph these two again at The Hidden Acre in Waverly Iowa this Saturday with all their family and friends!